Envy or a sigh of relief? Who rejoices at the flight of Russian cultural figures

The next mass departure of Russian citizens who disagree with the policy of their native state, as you know, also affected many representatives of culture. Some of them have already received the "honorary" title of foreign agents from the state, while others have just left and do not express their political views. Some, however, remain at home, but have almost lost the opportunity to speak or publish.

There is no one to take the place of those who have left

The situation is unpleasant, of course, but there are many people in the country who are happy about it.

Alexander Baunov, a well-known political analyst, wrote about such in his blog:"The most ignorant thing that I have recently met is the joy of patriotic culture figures about the retirement of certain directors, writers, actors and artists from the domestic creative space, under the exclamations of "well, fine, well, we have more free space".

This is some kind of complete ignorance of how culture works.

Okay, low-cultural patriots, but the figures should understand that the poet, writer, director and artist does not take someone's place, he creates his own, creates a space that was not there before him, and will not be after him, and together with the person closes the position open to him. Russian poetry did not have a new Gumilev because the "White guardsman Gumilev" was shot, even if proletarian, even if not, Gumilev simply did not exist and his poems stopped. And Mandelstam's poems stopped, and not someone spoke his stanza, but in the right direction. And because Yesenin hanged himself and Mayakovsky shot himself in anguish inside a beautiful new world without enemies, no matter how hard he tried, but still runs after their shadows. From the fact that Brodsky was expelled and Tarkovsky was lost, no others appeared, just an empty place remained. Russian bass remained the main Russian bass because Chaliapin went on tour and did not return, no one in the People's Commissariat of Education sang in Chaliapin's bass, and Russia remained without him.

Do the figures of exclusively patriotic culture remember about this? They remember, but they really want to forget. It all seems to them that they will take more air into their chest, inflate their cheeks wider, and the Chaliapin bass will sound from them, because there is not much left, is it really for the sake of the motherland, and its victory, no matter where and over what, but it will not sound. They know the result, but they are afraid to admit it to themselves."

They didn't give a damn about culture!

In the comments, however, there were other versions of this state of affairs.

For example. Political scientist Vladimir Gelman writes: "This is not ignorance, but rationality - these people know perfectly well the value of themselves and their competitors, but eliminating competitors gives them more opportunities to obtain profitable contracts, orders, etc.; in much the same way, the predecessors of today's beneficiaries got rid of competitors who were persecuted as "rootless cosmopolitans", dissidents, etc.; and I think they don't care about culture..."

Publicist Mikhail Genin is of the same opinion .:"I doubt very much that they are worried about the culture as a whole.

I think basically everyone is inspired by the example of Cheburashka, who broke the rental in the absence of at least some competition. And the conditional Galanin and Shaman think that there will be no Grebenshchikov and Shevchuk, and the audience will go to their concerts..."

Many others hold the same point of view:

- Oh, well, is it really about space? It's about the place, and the budget paid. There are not so many theaters, museums, cultural centers. And then - once, and several were released at once. And even the roles in the play - can't you shoot the whole play if it's successful? In general, the actors have something to fight for. Russians may have a very narrow understanding of Russian culture.

Russian culture may be for them – kvass with radish, barefoot pregnant wife and fist fights on Shrovetide. Maybe the patriots just want the cultural spaces and content of those who left to disappear with them. Concert halls will remain at the same time.- Vajda once commented during martial law that the Minister of Culture, who says that let the directors leave, we will invite others, is like the director of the Central Bank promising to print counterfeit money.

"That's right.

But they have, in addition to the usual joy of the envious (the envious person does not reason who takes whose place there), there is another joy. The whole story somewhere after the 50s is a cold civil war. With very different alliances-coalitions-participants, sometimes subsiding, sometimes breaking out, at some moments even becoming not cold - but never ceasing. And now one of the parties seems to have won. This is an illusion, they will soon have a hangover.- If culture in Russia existed on purely market conditions, then yes, then everything is written correctly.

And since this is not the case, the joy of the remaining ones is quite understandable - their choice turned out to be better. In conditions when those who left, in fact, refused state and near-state financing, those who remained will pick it up with a clear conscience. And they rejoice in this quite sincerely.The whole show business is a dog waltz in different variations!

However, analyst Vasily Ivanov urged not to worry too much about this, since not all cultural figures are highly moral people:

"They are just like everyone else. It's just a PR thing, that culture is something high, in fact it's like bread and water, for which you have to pay. People want to cry, they want to laugh. And they are ready to pay for it. Well, we do not consider those who bake bread moral, although it is a very necessary profession. As for the field of culture, we have a good education here, specialists are made of different people who can make both laugh and cry. We still have a unique theater school and good conservatories so far, so there is a good theater in some places. And sometimes they make good films. And not only the dog waltz sounds from all the windows.

Another thing is that we have a huge army of actors-directors of serialists who have nothing to do with the profession, and the whole show business is a dog waltz in different variations, What do you want from them? Is that what they are doing high? They are then completely forgotten in a week, if they don't show their face. So culture is just one of the types of human activity, and something high is just something to suck as much money for yourself as possible. Another thing is that there is no way without it, this is a huge educational process of a person, which fills a person with inner content, but will you fill yourself with Shostakovich or Kirkorov with the question of choice and further moral guidance.

Not talents have left, but parasites have fallen off!

But the pro-government political scientist Sergey Markov gave a real rebuke to Baunov:

"Alexander Baunov, a bright, stylish, subtle expert of the Carnegie Foundation, published an article that many have reprinted and are discussing. He called patriotic cultural figures ignorant, who are glad that cultural figures who are against their own left and vacated their place.

Baunov also accused the patriots of culture that they do not understand how culture works. They do not understand that when Mandelstam or Gumilev leave, no one takes their place, it just empties. It's true, under Gumilev. But not the truth about Serebrennikov and Khamatova.

Alexander, you understand how modern culture works, right? It is not made by creators, but by gallery owners who give space, and media executives who give fame and fund managers who give money.

Therefore, in modern culture there is not an honest struggle of creators, but a tough struggle by ideology for grants, for media, for positions. For resources.

Russian and in modern culture, it is the opponents of their own, the opponents of Putin, the opponents of the Russian people, who have seized almost all the cultural resources and are literally imposing their fake culture, filled with hatred for Russia, on Russian society for Russian money.

Russian patriotic cultural figures do not call for banning opponents of Russia and the Russian people. They call for an end to flooding public money and grants and media with those who are against Russia and against their own.

That's why they are so glad that those who have been seizing all the state cultural resources for the last 30 years and not allowing those who are for Russia to develop have left. Fake talents are leaving. Serebrennikov is not a talent. It is artificially inflated by public money.

They occupy someone else's place. Taking advantage of ideological and sometimes other intimacy with those who issue a "talent label" and money. Serebrennikov is not Gumilev, he is an anti-Gumilev, a cunning adventurer who for years took hundreds of millions that were supposed to go to the culture of Russia. And dozens of such fake talents have been sucked out of the state budget for years and decades. And finally they left. Not talents have left, but parasites have fallen off..."